New York City is not only The New Yorker magazine's place of origin and its sensibility's life blood, it is the heart of American literary culture. Wonderful Town, an anthology of superb short fiction by many of the magazine's most accomplished contributors, celebrates the 75-year marriage between a preeminent publication and its preeminent context with this collection of 20 of its best stories from (so to speak) home.

Great stories and readers, but technically sloppy

By
Alison
on
09-08-04

Bunny Mellon

The Life of an American Style Legend

By:
Meryl Gordon

Narrated by:
Vanessa Cortland

Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins

Unabridged

Overall

89

Performance

82

Story

80

A new biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art, and fashion.

Amazing story. Amazing life.

By
AskSeekKnock
on
11-06-17

Furious Cool

Richard Pryor and The World That Made Him

By:
David Henry,
Joe Henry

Narrated by:
Dion Graham

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Unabridged

Overall

160

Performance

143

Story

143

Richard Pryor was arguably the single most influential performer of the second half of the twentieth century, and certainly he was the most successful black actor/comedian ever. Controversial and somewhat enigmatic in his lifetime, Pryor's performances opened up a new world of possibilities, merging fantasy with angry reality in a way that wasn't just new - it was heretofore unthinkable. His childhood in Peoria, Illinois, was spent just trying to survive.

Great

By
shopper
on
01-05-15

Murder in an English Village

By:
Jessica Ellicott

Narrated by:
Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins

Unabridged

Overall

183

Performance

165

Story

166

The year is 1920: Flying in the face of convention, legendary American adventuress Beryl Helliwell never fails to surprise and shock. The last thing her adoring public would expect is that she craves some peace and quiet. The humdrum hamlet of Walmsley Parva in the English countryside seems just the ticket. And, honestly, until America comes to its senses and repeals Prohibition, Beryl has no intention of returning stateside and subjecting herself to bathtub gin.

As good and better than mysteries on the Times!

By
The Shepherdess
on
12-20-17

Everything That Rises Must Converge

By:
Flannery O’Connor

Narrated by:
Bronson Pinchot,
Karen White,
Mark Bramhall,
and others

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged

Overall

783

Performance

656

Story

668

This collection of nine short stories by Flannery O'Connor was published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment.

Pride goeth before the fall

By
Ryan
on
08-14-13

Here Is New York

By:
E. B. White

Narrated by:
Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 1 hr and 1 min

Unabridged

Overall

19

Performance

17

Story

17

Perceptive, funny, and nostalgic, E. B. White's stroll around Manhattan remains the quintessential love letter to the city, written by one of America's foremost literary figures.
The New York Times named
Here Is New York one of the 10 best books ever written about the metropolis, and
The New Yorker called it "the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city".

Old New York

By
Joseph Paul Gouverneur
on
07-24-16

Wonderful Town

New York Stories from The New Yorker

By:
Woody Allen,
John Cheever,
E. B. White,
and others

Narrated by:
Tyne Daly,
Timothy Jerome,
Joe Morton,
and others

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Abridged

Overall

80

Performance

32

Story

36

New York City is not only The New Yorker magazine's place of origin and its sensibility's life blood, it is the heart of American literary culture. Wonderful Town, an anthology of superb short fiction by many of the magazine's most accomplished contributors, celebrates the 75-year marriage between a preeminent publication and its preeminent context with this collection of 20 of its best stories from (so to speak) home.

Great stories and readers, but technically sloppy

By
Alison
on
09-08-04

Bunny Mellon

The Life of an American Style Legend

By:
Meryl Gordon

Narrated by:
Vanessa Cortland

Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins

Unabridged

Overall

89

Performance

82

Story

80

A new biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art, and fashion.

Amazing story. Amazing life.

By
AskSeekKnock
on
11-06-17

Furious Cool

Richard Pryor and The World That Made Him

By:
David Henry,
Joe Henry

Narrated by:
Dion Graham

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Unabridged

Overall

160

Performance

143

Story

143

Richard Pryor was arguably the single most influential performer of the second half of the twentieth century, and certainly he was the most successful black actor/comedian ever. Controversial and somewhat enigmatic in his lifetime, Pryor's performances opened up a new world of possibilities, merging fantasy with angry reality in a way that wasn't just new - it was heretofore unthinkable. His childhood in Peoria, Illinois, was spent just trying to survive.

Great

By
shopper
on
01-05-15

Murder in an English Village

By:
Jessica Ellicott

Narrated by:
Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins

Unabridged

Overall

183

Performance

165

Story

166

The year is 1920: Flying in the face of convention, legendary American adventuress Beryl Helliwell never fails to surprise and shock. The last thing her adoring public would expect is that she craves some peace and quiet. The humdrum hamlet of Walmsley Parva in the English countryside seems just the ticket. And, honestly, until America comes to its senses and repeals Prohibition, Beryl has no intention of returning stateside and subjecting herself to bathtub gin.

As good and better than mysteries on the Times!

By
The Shepherdess
on
12-20-17

Everything That Rises Must Converge

By:
Flannery O’Connor

Narrated by:
Bronson Pinchot,
Karen White,
Mark Bramhall,
and others

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged

Overall

783

Performance

656

Story

668

This collection of nine short stories by Flannery O'Connor was published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment.

Pride goeth before the fall

By
Ryan
on
08-14-13

Here Is New York

By:
E. B. White

Narrated by:
Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 1 hr and 1 min

Unabridged

Overall

19

Performance

17

Story

17

Perceptive, funny, and nostalgic, E. B. White's stroll around Manhattan remains the quintessential love letter to the city, written by one of America's foremost literary figures.
The New York Times named
Here Is New York one of the 10 best books ever written about the metropolis, and
The New Yorker called it "the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city".

Old New York

By
Joseph Paul Gouverneur
on
07-24-16

The Early Stories of Truman Capote

By:
Truman Capote,
Hilton Als - foreword

Narrated by:
Scott Brick,
Nancy Linari,
Sarah Scott

Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged

Overall

9

Performance

9

Story

9

Recently rediscovered in the archives of the New York Public Library, these short stories provide an unparalleled look at Truman Capote writing in his teens and early '20s, before he penned such classics as
Other Voices, Other Rooms,
Breakfast at Tiffany's, and
In Cold Blood. This collection of more than a dozen pieces showcases the young Capote developing the unique voice and sensibility that would make him one of the 20th century's most original writers.

Stories From A Young Capote

By
Sara
on
04-29-16

The Vanity Fair Diaries

1983-1992

By:
Tina Brown

Narrated by:
Tina Brown

Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

151

Performance

142

Story

140

The Vanity Fair Diaries is the story of an Englishwoman barely out of her 20s who arrives in New York City with a dream. Summoned from London in hopes that she can save Condé Nast's troubled new flagship
Vanity Fair, Tina Brown is immediately plunged into the maelstrom of the competitive New York media world and the backstabbing rivalries at the court of the planet's slickest, most glamour-focused magazine company. She survives the politics, the intrigue, and the attempts to derail her by a simple stratagem: succeeding.

There is something about the Brits...

By
Sylvia
on
12-11-17

Draft No. 4

On the Writing Process

By:
John McPhee

Narrated by:
John McPhee

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Unabridged

Overall

47

Performance

42

Story

42

Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer's craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee shares insights he's gathered over his career and refined during his long-running course at Princeton University, where he has launched some of the most esteemed writers of several generations. McPhee offers a definitive guide to the crucial decisions regarding structure, diction, and tone that shape nonfiction pieces and presents extracts from some of his best-loved work, subjecting them to wry scrutiny.

McPhee is the Craft

By
Darwin8u
on
09-19-17

West Cork

By:
Sam Bungey,
Jennifer Forde

Narrated by:
Sam Bungey,
Jennifer Forde

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Original Recording

Overall

4,119

Performance

3,669

Story

3,670

This much we do know: Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered days before Christmas in 1996, her broken body discovered at the edge of her property near the town of Schull in West Cork, Ireland. The rest remains a mystery. Gripping, yet ever elusive, join the real-life hunt for answers in the year’s first not-to-be-missed, true-crime series. West Cork is FREE through May 9, 2018.

Well done!

By
Ellen
on
02-14-18

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

By:
James Joyce

Narrated by:
Michael Orenstein

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Unabridged

Overall

160

Performance

142

Story

141

The intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus as he begins to question and rebel against the Catholic and Irish conventions with which he has been raised. He finally leaves for abroad to pursue his ambitions as an artist. The work is an early example of some of Joyce's modernist techniques that would later be represented in a more developed manner by
Ulysses and
Finnegans Wake. The novel, which has had a "huge influence on novelists across the world", was ranked by Modern Library as the third greatest English-language novel of the 20th century.

I don't understand the hate...

By
J. Grablowski
on
01-05-18

The Foundling

The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me

By:
Alex Tresniowski,
Paul Joseph Fronczak

Narrated by:
Kirby Heyborne

Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins

Unabridged

Overall

497

Performance

455

Story

459

The Foundling tells the incredible and inspiring true story of Paul Fronczak, a man who recently discovered via a DNA test that he was not who he thought he was - and set out to solve two 50-year-old mysteries at once. Along the way he upturned the genealogy industry, unearthed his family's deepest secrets, and broke open the second longest cold-case in US history, all in a desperate bid to find out who he really is.

Dragged out. Overly dramatic style.

By
Jessica
on
06-28-17

Lenin's Tomb

The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

By:
David Remnick

Narrated by:
Michael Prichard

Length: 29 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged

Overall

152

Performance

131

Story

134

In the tradition of John Reed's classic
Ten Days That Shook the World, this best-selling account of the collapse of the Soviet Union combines the global vision of the best historical scholarship with the immediacy of eyewitness journalism.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

By
Sher from Provo
on
09-19-16

C. S. Lewis

Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces

By:
C. S. Lewis

Narrated by:
Ralph Cosham

Length: 39 hrs and 1 min

Unabridged

Overall

356

Performance

320

Story

316

This is an extensive collection of short essays and other pieces by C. S. Lewis that have been brought together in one volume for the first time. As well as his many books, letters, and poems, Lewis also wrote a great number of essays and shorter pieces on various subjects. He wrote extensively on Christian theology and the defense of faith but also on various ethical issues and on the nature of literature and storytelling. In this essay collection we find a treasure trove of Lewis' reflections on diverse topics.

Here is the missing Table of Contents

By
R. Valerius
on
06-14-16

Grant

By:
Ron Chernow

Narrated by:
Mark Bramhall

Length: 48 hrs and 1 min

Unabridged

Overall

1,939

Performance

1,778

Story

1,767

Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow sows in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.

Excellent Book (BUT WHERE IS THE PDF FILES)????

By
Amazon Customer
on
10-25-17

The River of Consciousness

By:
Oliver Sacks

Narrated by:
Dan Woren,
Kate Edgar

Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins

Unabridged

Overall

51

Performance

47

Story

47

A collection of essays that displays Oliver Sacks' passionate engagement with the most compelling and seminal ideas of human endeavor: evolution, creativity, memory, time, consciousness, and experience.
The River of Consciousness is one of two books Sacks was working on up to his death, and it reveals his ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless project to understand what makes us human.

Important but Less Interesting

By
Michael
on
11-16-17

Leonardo da Vinci

By:
Walter Isaacson

Narrated by:
Alfred Molina

Length: 17 hrs and 1 min

Unabridged

Overall

3,016

Performance

2,732

Story

2,700

Leonardo da Vinci created the two most famous paintings in history,
The Last Supper and the
Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and engineering. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry.

Genius Adrift

By
J.B.
on
10-26-17

People Who Eat Darkness

The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo - and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up

By:
Richard Lloyd Parry

Narrated by:
Simon Vance

Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

1,736

Performance

1,571

Story

1,576

Lucie Blackman - tall, blond, 21 years old - stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo in the summer of 2000 and disappeared. The following winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave. The seven months in between had seen a massive search for the missing girl involving Japanese policemen, British private detectives, and Lucie’s desperate but bitterly divided parents. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult or snatched by human traffickers? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet? And what did her work as a hostess in the notorious Roppongi district of Tokyo really involve?

This is the audiobook against I rate all others.

By
El_Ron
on
03-08-13

Publisher's Summary

One of art's purest challenges is to translate a human being into words.
The New Yorker magazine has met this challenge more often and more successfully than any other modern American journal. Starting with its light fantastic evocations of the glamorous and the idiosyncratic in the '20s and continuing to the present, with complex pictures of such contemporaries as Marlon Brando and Richard Pryor,
The New Yorker's Profiles have presented readers with a vast and brilliant portrait gallery of our day and age. These literary-journalistic investigations into character and accomplishment, motive and madness, beauty and ugliness, are unrivaled in their range, variety of style, and embrace of humanity.

When they were first published, these biographies brought insight, amusement, understanding, and often, joy or sorrow to those who read them. Gathered here, in Life Stories, they provide an album of our era, a rich and diverse appraisal of some of the most prominent members of an entire century's cast.

Performance

Story

Exceptional writing makes this a fascinating read

I have to admit that the Truman Capote story on Marlon Brando was a bit disappointing. But the rest, oh my! What a wonderful book of stories; it starts with Lillian Ross on Earnest Hemingway; then goes to Katherine White, one of the founding editors of the New Yorker; then goes on to profile boxers, "cool finders", a tightrope walker; Heloise (from Hints from Heloise); Edna Buchanan (Miami crime beat reporter); Isadora Duncan, and even a champion show dog. My two favorites were Mr. Hunter's Grave by Joseph Mitchell and A Pryor Love (about Richard Pryor) by Hilton Als. Mr. Hunter's Grave was not really about a person so much as about a small town on Staten Island; I know, I don't make it sound like much, but really, I hated to have it end. The story on Richard Pryor was insightful -- it showed the flaws in the man with such compassion and with enough understanding of Mr. Pryor's past to show how it all worked together first to make him into a celebrity, and then brought him down again.

The narration on all the stories is good, but it is the writing that really makes this book stand out. It is the sort of writing that transports you from where ever you are into the world being profiled. You come away wanting to know more about the people discussed, and feeling like you may have met some new friends. 10 hours is not enough for this book; I hope they will put out the unabridged edition. I will go back and listen to these stories again.

Abridged after all

These profiles are so extraordinary that I searched the Internet for others, and discovered the table of contents for this book. Having ordered from Audible an "unabridged" book, I was astonished to find that the Audible version omits about half the content of the print edition. Even at half its advertised length, the Audible version is a gem and well worth it.

Life Stories

This audiobook is pure gold - a broad myriad of profiles, colorfully written and perfectly read by performers, such as Amy Irving, whose voices enhance rather than invade the writing. I had read some of these excellent profiles in the New Yorker, but this format gave them new life. This is a highly entertaining and intelligent series. I'm only sad that I've not yet found second installment of Life Stories in audiobook, though I'm still searching.